Moderates must tame wild rebels

IT IS unfortunate that Conservative peer Baroness Warsi picked last week to claim Muslims feel alienated in British society, while across London in Whitechapel arrests were made after Muslim gang members apparently filmed themselves confiscating alcohol from revellers in a pathetic ­attempt to impose a form of Sharia Law.

Coming after attacks on women wearing “revealing” clothing and homophobic violence, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that a small minority of young Muslims don’t want any part of the tolerant, liberal society into which they were born.

Two years ago Warsi said that Islamophobia had now passed the “dinner table test”, with the chatterati now finding it acceptable to attack Muslims over their sun-dried tomatoes. Weeks later it emerged that a Taliban-­inspired vigilante group were threatening women who failed to wear headscarves and defacing posters they found “troubling”. It seems whenever Warsi makes bold pronouncements about how society won’t allow young Muslims to integrate, some decide to demonstrate that, actually, integration isn’t for them.

This lack of integration is hardly new. Like Warsi, I come from West Yorkshire. Almost 30 years ago, working in an Asian area of town, me and other lads from the factory would come under ­attack from ­locals simply for walking along their streets. The fact they had probably had much the same experience walking round the ­mainly white peripheral estates didn’t make the experience any more pleasant.

If you go to that same area now you find the pubs closed, apparently fire-bombed, yet a friend who worked with these Asian boys said they often drank booze and slept with white girls because they were “easy”.

When Labour’s Ann Cryer made a similar point years ago she was slammed as an Islamophobe. Even now any newspaper which links grooming gangs with ethnicity is accused of stirring up racial violence yet although most paedophiles seem to be white, there does seem to be a problem with some Muslims and young girls.

In such cities as Rochdale, Oxford and Rotherham, Asian men have been con­victed of passing young, vulnerable children round like toys. Warsi has nothing to say on why it is that for these men, white girls are seen as somehow subhuman. To Warsi, all Muslims are always the victims.

Having spent a great deal of time working in East London, I would say Warsi is right… but for the wrong reasons. Some Muslims do seem to revel in victimhood. I have worked with many who have been friendly, accepting and broad-minded but I’ve also seen self-imposed segregation, such as the burqa-clad woman who refused to allow me to help her carry a pram down the Tube steps.

Tower Hamlets is one of the most deprived areas in Britain and many young people, overwhelmingly of Bengali heritage, struggle to find work, despite the nearby skyscrapers looming over them. They struggle to find decent housing despite the new gated communities along the river. They struggle to find any relevance in their lives: their parents represent one culture, “Western” films, TV and music represent another and they are caught in the middle. Perhaps it’s no great surprise that some become angry… and worse.

On July 6, 2005, I was in an East End town hall when the announcement was made that London would host the Olympics. As screams of joy went up from ­people of every colour and religion it felt like the dawn of a new era.

Next morning, my wife and I were due to fly from Heathrow. We went to the Tube to find the gates locked. Bombs had exploded on buses and Tubes.

On returning to work, I found the atmosphere had changed, though not in the way I expected. Although attacks on Muslims and their places of worship did rise after 7/7, overall most people seemed to accept that Islam is a religion of peace. It’s a view that many, myself included, continue to ­believe, even after the recent near-misses in which Jihadis have tried to blow up planes, malls and clubs because, in the charming words of one wannabe terrorist, they were full of “slags dancing around”.

As Clive James pointed out after the 2002 Bali bombings, the aggressors weren’t killing tourists because of Palestine, they were doing it because they didn’t like the way young Australians danced. Witness Nigeria, where Muslims chant “down with beauty” as they kill non-believers. Witness Egypt, where there are proposals to ­destroy the pyramids because they pre-date Islam. Witness Mali, where renowned ­musician Khaira Arby had to flee because music is seen as “Har’am” (forbidden).

Two years ago Warsi said that Islamophobia had now passed the “dinner table test”

It should be stressed that for every raging Atta and Hamza there are those like Irshad Manji who advocate more moderate forms of Islam, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has written not only of Islam’s faults but also of the misguided policies adopted by Western politicians to make allow­ances for Muslims that no other ethnic group demands or receives.

These policies do more damage to community relations than terrorists or booze patrols. I become far angrier listening to some middle class Respect member talk about the need to build a huge new mosque than when I see someone in Whitechapel haranguing women for not covering their hair. To me, any woolly-­liberal excusing of misogyny by Muslim men is simply another form of racism.

Recently I wrote a novel, Out Of Office, in which some areas of London become alcohol-free zones and a form of Sharia Law is imposed, not by local Muslims but by well-meaning councils. Critics suggested the book was far-fetched but the more I hear about booze patrols and women being raped for going out at night, the more I ­become convinced that a major change of attitude needs to take place.

On this I agree with Warsi. However, ­unlike the Baroness I would suggest that some of this change needs to come from within her own community.

Mark Piggott’s Out Of Office is published by Legend Press (£7.99)

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